Pondweed

Family Potamogetonaceae. Pondweeds are perennial aquatic plants. They develop a long rhizome in the substrate. It overwinters, and in spring elongated shoots grow from the overwintering buds.

Individual shoots or parts of them may break off and float freely in the water, continuing their development. Pondweeds are eaten by aquatic mollusks, insects, and fish. In stands of pondweed many fish spawn. Dead shoots fall to the bottom. As they decompose, they turn into fertile silt.

Pondweeds exhibit an exceptional diversity of leaf shapes — from oval to ribbon-like. At the base of the leaf there are free or fused-with-the-petiole transparent membranous stipules. They flower above the water, raising in July–August spicate inflorescences of marsh coloration composed of inconspicuous flowers.

Location: All pondweeds grow well in fertile, organically rich substrate. Preferred immersion depth varies: while pondweeds with floating leaves can grow in very shallow water, submerged ones need at least 20–30 cm to settle "comfortably." Almost all can live in both standing and slowly flowing water, but the crested pondweed grows well in the fast water of streams. Cuttings are planted in a container with fertile soil or sunk with a weight at a suitable depth in a natural water body. They grow in both sun and partial shade.

Care: limit their spread, but it is almost impossible to eradicate an established pondweed. Pondweeds overwinter on the bottom of water bodies and do not require covering or other winter storage measures.

Reproduction: by cuttings in spring and summer, by pieces of rhizomes, and also by seeds. Seed collection is carried out at the end of the season, when they detach from the plant and float on the surface of the water. Seeds are rolled into balls of clay and lowered in the desired places in the pond onto silty substrate to a depth of 40–90 cm (for crested and shining pondweeds — to depths up to 1.5 m).